Estonia’s convention bureau celebrates

The Estonian Convention Bureau celebrated its successes last week following its first decade in operation, with a festive gathering of members and partners.

Held at the Tallinn Creative Hub, the January 24 event highlighted the accomplishments achieved by the group since it was founded in 2008. Chief among these was “propelling Estonia into the ranks of Europe’s best-known conference destinations”, the bureau said.

“One key ingredient of our work has been connecting institutions from a wide variety of sectors and businesses – hotels, tour companies, venue operators, city governments, tourist boards and universities,” said the bureau’s managing director, Kadri Karu.

“Now they’re all pulling together to promote the country under the Team Estonia brand, and the results speak for themselves.”

She added: “This kind of private-public partnership for promoting a country is truly unique and it has gained plenty of admiration from other convention bureaus on the international scene.”

Conference of the year
In addition to launching the Team Estonia concept in 2015, other milestones at the bureau include creating conference ambassador programs in the Estonian cities of Tallinn and Tartu in 2010, and establishing the annual Conference of the Year award the following year.

Also at the gathering, particular praise was given to Enterprise Estonia/Visit Estonia, the destination management company the ECB has worked with to carry out a number of joint activities over the years.

As a further demonstration of appreciation, the bureau honoured the Enterprise Estonia team with the event’s ECB Best Friend award.

The cities of Tallinn and Tartu received bureau’s award for Biggest Supporters, while the 14 ECB participants that have been with the organisation since its founding were given special recognition as ten-year members.